Published: April 5, 2026 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 90 | Scripture: Romans 15:22-29
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continue in the section of Romans 15 where Paul is is opening a a little bit of a window on his life, on his purpose, on his plans, the way he has
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performed the ministry that was given to him, the way he planned it, the way he purposed it, and the way by God's grace and direction he carried out his apostilhip to the Gentiles. We're
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looking at verses 22- 29. Focusing this week on the latter part of that, Romans chapter 15, beginning in verse 22. And
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for this reason, I have often been hindered from coming to you. But now with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you whenever
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I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company for a while. But now I am
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going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Teaya have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes,
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they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things. Therefore, when
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I have finished this and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain. And I know that when I come to you, I will come in
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the fullness of the blessing of Christ. Let us pray.
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Father, we pray as always we pray that your Holy Spirit would illuminate your word and open it to our understanding. And then also as he dwells within us, that he would strengthen us and enable
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us to walk according to what he has revealed to us. That we might not be hearers of the word only, but doers.
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that the word might sanctify us because it is truth and that the Lord's prayer on all our behalf that we might be sanctified in the truth would
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bear fruition each and every day through your word and by your spirit. So we pray that you would bless the preaching of your word not only in this place but
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throughout the world where your children gather to worship you and to hear from you through your word. We pray that Jesus Christ would be exalted and that
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his many children would be fed and nourished and also that you would add to their number today those who are being saved. Father we ask this in Jesus name.
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in late April or early May, I can't remember the date, 1984, was sitting on an airplane on the tarmac at Harrisburg airport because they didn't have those things that come out to the plane back then.
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And I was on my way into the wilderness. No, I was on my way to Oklahoma, but it was a wilderness in the sense that I had graduated college and I'd
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taken a job in the oil field and I was leaving my home, my family, um, my fiance, uh, who by the way was Angela.
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Don't want to mislead anyone. Um, the steartis, they don't call him that anymore, do they? The flight attendant noticed I had a book on the seat beside
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me. I don't know how that managed that. I had an open seat beside me. Noticed the book that I had there. It was a book by a man by the name of Gary Fen. And the book was called Decisionmaking and
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the Will of God. And I was reading that book. Someone had just recently given it to me. Although it seemed like it maybe it was a little bit too late because I had already made
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some very major decisions. I had already decided to go to college. I had graduated and decided to take a particular job in a particular field. I had decided to propose to a particular
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woman. It seemed like the decisions, at least at that age, I had already made. But did I know how to make decisions according to the will of God? Or did I
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even know at the time though I was a believer, did I even know that the will of God has any impact on the decisions I make? And and so as we look at Paul shedding
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some light on his own purpose and the decisions that he's made, that's what he's doing here. He's the apostle to the to the Gentiles. He's already mentioned that. But you you see here as he unfolds
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his eventual coming to Rome, you see him unfolding his plans. He had he had long purposed to visit them in Rome, but he never planned on staying there because someone had already established the
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church there. And he doesn't lay a foundation where another man has already laid the foundation of Jesus Christ. And you can see even though he's in the midst of of conflict and turmoil with
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the Jews, the Jews, he's also planning to go to Spain. He's he's got purpose in his life. He has plans and he intends to carry them
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through and you can see that they they go out fairly far into the future. He wasn't catching a flight from Corinth to Jerusalem. It was going to be a long and
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arduous journey and as we know his journey to Rome was going to be even worse worse than TSA being laid off. He it was a long and arduous and dangerous
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journey that almost killed him but by the grace of God. So his plan is is going long way out into the future. And it brings to my mind just a phenomenon
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in modern evangelical Christianity. And and that phenomenon is that that we really don't know how to make decisions according to the will of God. Or to put it Paul's way,
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when we make decisions, are we convinced that when they come to fruition, when we carry them out, it will be with the fullness of the
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blessing of Christ? And and I think that's that's the phrase that I want to key on today because I I think that believers are do not need to
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be apostles in order to both seek and to know that what they do and as they do it, they do it with the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
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Because I think that if you can't know that and you can't say that, then you cannot say that your decisions and your plans are according to the will of God.
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And so decision-making in the will of God was what what I was reading. And I will confess that I don't remember a whole lot about it and I can't find it in my library either. But I do remember
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it did have some impact because the one thing that that Gary Fson in his book was trying to overcome was the idea very
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popular then I don't know how much it is now but the idea within Christian Christianity that there is a single dot that's that's the metaphor that he used
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that God's will is a single dot in other words there is but one company in the world that God wants you to work for.
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There is but one woman or one man, and you've probably heard this, somewhere in the world that God wants you to marry, there's one house in the world where God
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wants you to live. The idea that that we need to seek out and find that that singular will of God in each and every aspect of our life.
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It wasn't long after moving to Oklahoma that I encountered, we encountered, but I encountered uh a a preacher. I think he was a guest preacher. Um, and he was
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talking about how the Lord guides him. And he said that in the morning he goes into his closet and he stands there and he waits for the Lord to tell him what
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to wear in all the way down to the tie that he was to wear. And I remember thinking based on how he was dressed that he knew not spirit. He knew not
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what spirit he was of. However, he was led. Um, he was actually talking about his outfit and maybe I could talk about my outfit,
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but it it did not match. It clashed. It was quite ungodly. Um, and and so that even then got me
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thinking, is is that really the way our father wants us to make our decisions? Are we to look for this this hidden dot
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of God's will and seek it out and find it? And that really torments a lot of Christians. And I do know that that is still taught today. And I know it it
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torments many young believers as they believe that that God has a particular person in mind. Well, of course he does. He knows the end from the beginning. But
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he has given us guidance and guidelines in terms of for example finding a spouse. They must be in the Lord. Okay. We know that marriage is between a man
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and a woman and it is for life. I mean we know things and it's the things that God has revealed to our understanding by which we ought to walk and by which we
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ought to make our plans and our decisions. I don't think we are meant to be bound by this rigid straight jacket that is so often taught in terms of
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God's will. I think God's will is that we should as any father's will of his children that we should grow that we should mature that we should seek wisdom
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and then walk in it and that that wisdom will guide us in our plans and in our choices. I don't think that God guided Paul in that way. We we'll see in the
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scriptures that that there were a couple of times when God intervened in Paul's plans, but for the most part, we simply read Paul making his plans and
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carrying them out and then moving as the spirit moved him and also as circumstances moved him. If he was cast out of a synagogue in one place, he went
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down the road to the next place. If he was chased out of a town, he went to the next town. But he had an overall plan. And so I I I want to say first of all
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that I if you if you've heard that what I call the dot theory or if if you've tried to pattern your decision-making on that that mysterious and hidden perfect
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I think the Lord is much more gracious than that and desires you rather to walk in wisdom to do your research to use your mind. And I know that sounds bad from the pulpit. I'm not trying to teach
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rationalism, but rather maturity that you should seek counsel, for example, in the issue of a car with people who know how to run and fix cars,
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but you don't need to find that perfect car that God has saved from eternity past for your use.
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um phrase that that I had heard I have heard adnauseium over the decades. The Lord has given me peace about this
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I have also found that that decision is usually um very hurtful for many many other people. other people. I've often found frequently that that piece involves a higher salary with
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And I've also found that it's an incredibly subjective criterion with regard to making decisions in life. Um, normally that is accompanied by the
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uh the phrase through much prayer and counsel and the Lord has given me peace. Is that how we are to make our decisions and our plans in life? Are we so attuned
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to the Holy Spirit that we can sense infallibly that we're making the right decision and can say and use the Lord's name perhaps in vain, the Lord is
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telling me to do this? I don't see that in scripture either. He has given us his word for guidance and his holy spirit to illuminate his word.
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And I think that that whereas the dot theory of decision-making can be incredibly incredible bondage, I also think the peace theory of decision-m can
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be incredibly subjective. And I don't think that's the proper way either. I think we have solid and objective criteria by which we make our
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decisions. Even though that solid objective criteria, the word of God will not give us the dot. It will not tell us which job to take, which person to
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marry, which house to live in, which tie to wear. to wear. It will give us the wisdom by which we make those decisions. And scripture also tells us that in a multitude of
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counselors, there is victory. That we're we're taught to seek counsel of godly men and women. And I do think oftenimes older than us or at least older in the
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Lord than us to help guide us on that way. But I I don't think we should be relying on how we feel about something. I hope that if we're making our
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decisions in a biblical manner according to the wisdom that God gives us, we will have peace. Yes. But I think sometimes we put the cart in front of the horse and the peace that we
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are feeling is not biblical and not wise. Sometimes peace is nothing more than the avoidance of conflict. And yet sometimes conflict is necessary
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for growth. for growth. And so we make decisions to avoid conflict. But avoiding conflict we avoid growth. And so the decision
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turns out not to be wise. So, I don't I reject the dot theory. I reject the peace in my heart theory. And I hope to be able to present perhaps
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not a definitive way of making our decisions and formulating our plans, but at least one that is more biblical and and shown more by Paul. Do
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we have, we could ask, do we have nothing to go by other than subjective feelings or again some mysterious dot of God's will that we must seek and find?
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Well, I think we do. I think we have much more to go by. Paul writes in this chapter as I said earlier, we have that criteria that
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and I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I think that is the solid criterion for decision-making
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the blessing the fullness of the blessing of Christ. But then the question comes, h how do we know that? Isn't that that feeling that I have? I feel like the Lord is blessing
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what I'm doing. Well, it is difficult to define. But if Paul says it's available, when Paul says he knows, he's confident that he will
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have that fullness of the blessing of Christ, then I have to believe that through the Holy Spirit, we can also know that as we make our plans, as we
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make our decisions and as we walk in life, there is again the fundamental question that I have encountered over the years.
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um many people have a very negative answer to and that is should we even make plans if we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us should we even make plans or should we just simply listen
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for the spirit and and again I think we see Paul making plans but there are many who would uh who would point to James for example where we're going to go in a moment who
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would point to James and say well no no no you shouldn't be making plans you've probably heard the phrase that if If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail. And I know that's that's kind of trit. It's
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very modern. And the question, does it pertain to believers at all? I think is a valid one. And I think we need to start there, especially young people, as you're as you're getting older and
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heading out into life, as you you may someday be sitting in that airplane, leaving everything behind and moving out into a into a wilderness that you've never experienced before. How do you
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know that you're going with the fullness of the blessing of Christ or you should even have have made these plans? Well, again, many people turn to James.
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James says, "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a place, and we will spend a year there and engage in business and
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and we'll make a profit." Now, James is not referring to apostles. The word prophet is P R O FI T. So we we
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know that this is not some religious office. He's talking about all believers who who say, "Hey, we're going to go there. We're going to make money. We're going to stay a year. We're going to then move on to another place." And and
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James, it seems, condemns them for that. But is he opposing decision making? He says, "Yet you do not know what your
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life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. So why bother planning? You know, you really don't
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know that you'll be alive tomorrow. So why not just take it as it comes? That's being open to the Holy Spirit. Now, now hopefully most of you think of that as
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ridiculous, but you may know people who live just that way. And we've had members of our family who who live kind of just that way. And every misfortune and every failure was chocked off chocked up to
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the will of God. And because of their faith and their persecution and the fact of the matter is that they were aimless. They were fruitless.
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They were not bearing a witness to the glory of Jesus Christ but rather to the failure of their own lives. And I don't think they can turn to James for support because what he is
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condemning here is not the planning but the presumption. the presumption. He goes on to clearly state instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we shall
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live and also do this or that. You see he does not condemn their planning. He condemns their presumption. He condemns the fact that they have no
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no thought of the glory and purpose of God on their horizon. And the horizon is what I the really the thought I want to leave you with today.
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And that is the making of plans in our lives as believers is determined by our horizon. I think Hebrews 11 really
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brings that out. You get this idea as as the the writer is going down this list of what we call the hall of faith or the hall of fame of faith. You get this idea
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that as they're walking through this life doing this doing that their eyes are fixed on a horizon. He starts chapter 12 by saying fix your
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eyes then on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. We have a long journey to go in life, but we all have the same horizon. John
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Bunan refers to it as the celestial city that no matter what Christian did, the decisions he made, some were wise and others were foolish, he still had the
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same vision in his horizon. And so without telling you who you should marry and where you should live and what job you should take, I can say what you
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should be looking at throughout the journey. Your eyes should be fixed on Jesus Christ who has gone the full distance ahead of us. Even Abraham was looking to
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that city whose builder and maker is God, the celestial city. And so they walk through life, walking by faith, keeping in step with the spirit as we were learning in Sunday school today.
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It's not letting the wind blow your Bible open and that's your reading for the day. It's not letting go and let God. It It's not the subjective feeling that we have in our hearts. It's eyes
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and minds and hearts that are fixed on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. because it's only that vision and that orientation that can lay claim to the fullness of the blessings of Christ.
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I will admit that as I sat on that airplane, I had in my on my horizon a successful career in industry. As an engineer, as a
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graduate, I hoped to be able to be successful and make plenty of money. That was my horizon.
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drove me or as Mark was saying, the Gospel of Mark uses with regard to Jesus being led into the wilderness, impelled the events of our life together early on
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in Oklahoma impelled us to reorient that horizon. Now, that doesn't mean that I went into went into I hate this phrase, full-time Christian
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ministry. Folks, every believer in Jesus Christ is a full-time Christian minister. Okay? It's just a matter of what your venue is, as I mentioned last week, how little you get paid.
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But I'm not saying that it all looks alike. It does not. Just like the body, Paul says, has many parts and yet it is one body. So our lives have many
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different facets, many different appearances, manifestations of our decisions. We don't all do the same thing. That is not the will of God.
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But we all have the same orientation. We all have our eyes on the same horizon. And that is the one who has gone into glory before us and will lead us into
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glory. The psalmist says he holds us by the hand and afterward leads us to glory. That that is our ultimate goal is to be pleasing in his sight. Our
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ultimate goal is not to say or have our our parents say, "Well done, good and faithful son, thou lawyer, thou doctor." No. Well done, good and faithful
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servant. Enter into the joy of thy master. That is the ultimate criteria for our decision makingaking is that we be pleasing to the Lord and secure the
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fullness of his blessing in whatever we do. So how do we make plans? Well, again, I look at Paul as a great example, not only for the the church and
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for missions, as we talked about before, but I see him as a great example just um and and he even said, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." I think he's a very good example of of how to live life in
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Christ, which was his most common phrase with regard to believers, those who are in him. in him. He may not lay out for each one of us
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the path that we should take, but he presents an example as does Jesus Christ, but maybe a little bit closer to our own lives because he was also a sinner and was also subject
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to corruption, misunderstanding, and frankly mistakes, which I think he probably made a few. And so I look to Paul here and I I say, "Okay, now how
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did he make a plan?" Well, he's the apostle to the Gentiles, which must have presented him with a very challenging beginning as he sat in his chariot,
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ready to move off into the wilderness. This is a Pharisee who was who was trained at the feet of one of the greatest teachers of rabbitic Judaism of that time, Galial. This was a man who
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was seeped in scripture of the Old Hebrew Bible and believed that Israel was God's chosen people through whom salvation would come. And so God takes
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him and says, "Okay, here's your job. You will be the apostle to the Gentiles." And so going off into a world that was only partially known to him, we've
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already talked about his his methodology. For example, he would choose a place to call his hub and then from there as spokes from a hub on a wheel, he would go or send missionaries
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into the villages around. So he would go to Ephesus and stay there three years. But while there he would move out into Asia Minor or he would send his lieutenants out, his legots and they
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would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ until the whole region had been covered, the foundation had been laid and it was time for him to move on to another hub
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and do the same thing over again. So you can see that he had purpose and planning in what he was to do. He also purposed that he would not preach Christ where Christ had already been preached, but he
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would rather go only to virgin territory where Christ the foundation had not yet been laid. And then he revisited them and he sent letters to these churches
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setting elders in each place as he went through a second time. Yet he was tuned in to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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So we read in Acts for example Acts chapter 16 and they pass through Friia and the Galatian region
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having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. So that that's that's interesting. He's making plans. He's planning apparently to go
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into Asia and yet he's forbidden. Now we don't know how that came about. We we do know that he comes over to Macedonia
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because of a vision that he has of a Macedonian man who says come to us. Basically, we need the gospel over here. So, the Holy Spirit is saying, "You can't go there now. You need to go
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there." But the point I want to make is that he's moving. He's not waiting. He's moving. He's moving according to the plan that he has. And yet, he's open to the movement
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of God through the Holy Spirit. Now, I think that translates into our lives as well. I remember years ago somebody saying it's very difficult to steer a car that isn't moving.
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It it you need to be moving, which means you need to be making plans. And I think it's safe to say that all of Paul's plans had at their core
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the glory of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. So what kept Paul from visiting Rome was his continuing work in the east. Okay?
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It it wasn't any vision that he had. He wasn't prevented from going to Rome by the Holy Spirit. Nor was he invited to go to Rome by a vision. He simply still
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had work to do where he was. And that work when it was finished. He says here when I have I am finished here, but I have one more thing to do. And that is to take this gift from the Macedonian
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Aayan churches down to Jerusalem to present to the to the saints, the Jewish saints there in Jerusalem. When that is done and when I have laid my seal of approval on that gift, I will come to
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you as I go to Spain. Planning and yet planning that is moved by the Holy Spirit. Does this process work for nonapostiles?
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I mean like a young man, a young engineer setting out from college. I believe it does. Frankly, I believe that God is so sovereign that he has already ordained
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the path that we will take, including for our instruction, the mistakes we make, the wrong turns that we take.
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I believe and have come to believe over the course of of my adult life that as long as our eyes are fixed on Jesus that
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even the mistakes we make and the wrong paths that we take will result in our growth and his glory. I'm not saying that we should willfully and purposely
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make those mistakes. I'm simply saying that even in this we're not infallible even in our own lives. We may choose a career that is really not suitable for
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us as it was not suitable for me really to be in the corporate world. And yet being a graduate chemical engineer in
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years to come after I left that I would end up teaching chemistry at Milton Academy. I believe that God uses what we go through for his glory and for the
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benefit of others. Even our mistakes teach us of our fallibility, of our dependence. They stimulate us to be more in his word
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to know his will. And I think they should turn our focus even more keenly and unwaveringly on that horizon, that
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city whose builder and maker is God, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the father. And so I think that when when James says, "If
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the Lord wills," now you you notice here in Romans in verse 28, "Therefore, when I have finished this and have put my seal on the fruit of theirs, I will go by way of you to Spain if the Lord
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wills." No, that's not actually in there. Okay. I I do think that it there is a danger within evangelical Christianity
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of turning phrases into talisman into little charms. Okay. I I think for example when we pray and we pray in Jesus' name that can
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become just the end phrase to your prayer. I think when we say if the Lord wills, in fact, it in in the Puritan era, it it
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came down to simply DV, the abbreviation DV, so that future readers would have no idea what you're talking about.
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It's Latin for if the Lord wills. Deis something. What is it? Vault. Okay. Volian. if the Lord wills. I had to look it up. I'm reading a DV. DV. Who's DV? Okay.
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Um, but yeah, I I hope you get my point. I mean, when you have to abbreviate something, I think you've kind of lost the content. OMG. You know, I think when you know, lol.
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You know, when you get to a place where you have to abbreviate and everything has to be abbreviated, I think you've lost something of the content and things become simply wrote. So Paul doesn't use
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the phrase if the Lord will. But his whole life is if the Lord wills. His life is so dedicated to the glory of Jesus Christ and the preaching of the gospel that it literally goes without
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saying if the Lord wills. Okay? And he knows that his path in the future will be directed by the Lord as we ought to know as well. So how can we know if the
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Lord wills? Well, again, not by means of visions. Hey, I I I think they're very rare even in scripture and not something that any
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believer ought to rely on that God will give you a vision of uh a department or division manager calling to you from Oklahoma City. Come. No, that's not how
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it works. Also, not by um inner peace as I mentioned earlier. That is too subjective. I think again it
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begins with that ultimate horizon of our ambitions and that is our Lord and that ultimate praise that every
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believer should seek in this life and that is well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your master. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 that that he does not judge
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himself and he does not accept the judgments of others. But he says I'm not by that acquitted. My judge is the Lord. And he knows himself to be a steward of
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the gift that God has given him of apostilhip. And he teaches his churches. You are all each one of you a steward of the gift that God has given you by the Holy Spirit.
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Holy Spirit. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4, it is a it is required in a steward that he be found faithful. found faithful. And so when we set our horizons on our
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future, and I do speak this primarily to the young, the ones who are just kind of starting out, when you when you set your horizon, what what is your horizon? My
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horizon was very short. It was this life. It was worldly. It was success in business. It was financial security. It it were
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things that my parents desired for me and things that were always a source of stress in my family growing up. I didn't
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want that. What I ultimately wanted was peace and stability. And I did not find that in the world.
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Neither will you. What you will find in the world is tumult and stress. You will find enmity and rejection. You will find
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betrayal, but you will not find peace because the true peace that passes understanding the world cannot give because it does not have it. And so peace
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ought to be our horizon. The peace that we have in Jesus Christ. William Plumer writes, "Of how little value are carnal or temporal things compared with
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spiritual ones. The former are transitory, the latter abide forever, taking fast hold on eternity." Now, I I know that this may conjure up simplistic
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and pyotistic ideas of of, you know, in the light of eternity, you know, this doesn't matter. That that's not the right perspective either. In the light
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of eternity, how we live our life now does matter. In the light of eternity, how we make our decisions and how we respond to circumstances does matter. In
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the light of eternity is written in time. It begins with the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your Lord,
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as your savior. That changes all time immediately. But then it continues as we walk in the Lord, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. It it's not a matter of
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it doesn't matter what we do here in the light of eternity because it's in that light of eternity that we will either receive the reward and our work will be shown to be gold, silver, precious
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stones or it will be burned up by the fire of judgment because it was nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. The light of eternity is also the fire of judgment.
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of judgment. And that is all predicated on this life for each one of us. So again, what do we do? Uh what am I supposed to do? You know, what do I do with my life? Well,
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I'm going to give you some advice. This is one of those I not the Lord portions as Paul would say. But as someone Paul also said who believes he also has the spirit of
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Christ. First, as you choose the path of employment, I think you should look for one that allows some control of your own time and more importantly your own soul.
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In this, I think it would be wise to to seek the counsel of others who have have gone the traditional way of the world and into, for example,
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corporate or industrial life. and and ask them if they are believers. Was that the right decision? Was that a decision that you received with the
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fullness of the blessing of Christ? If you ask me, I will tell you no, it was not. God has used it for the benefit
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of others and hopefully for his glory. But by God's grace, it didn't become my whole life. whole life. You need a an employment that allows control of your own time and your own
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soul. An environment that allows contemplation on God's word and God's will. You should seek as best you can that
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sort of environment where you're encouraged to be in his word and in his worship, which means his community, his church. Any path forward that takes you
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away from that will not be the path of wisdom. It will not be the path of true prosperity. Though it may be the path of material prosperity.
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material prosperity. Perhaps you are considering a spouse. Well, a spouse that walks beside, not ahead nor behind, but walks beside
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and home and family that is centered around the obedience of faith.
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I confess I had no idea what to look for in a spouse.
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gratitude for the one he gave me. We did not understand our faith. I know I didn't understand mine and I don't think we understood our faith.
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But he gave me a spouse who was unwaveringly for the Lord. And it was that and a great deal of tumult and turmoil that arose from
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ignorance that made me realize that that is the only path of peace. So if you are looking for a spouse, do not follow the path of of the world.
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I I've often told young people that if you're looking at a particular young man or or a particular young woman, look also to that young man's father because that's what he's going to look like someday. And also, you know, look to the
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young woman's mother. And also look to their behavior and the behavior of the home because that's the orientation and the background with which they've grown. And unless you do something differently,
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that will be your home as well. There there are things that God has put into our life that allow us to make wise decisions, but most of all, let he or
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she be in the Lord. And not just nominally, not just by the words of their mouth, but by the steps of their walk. Let them be in the Lord. Let the
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Lord be their all and all and their horizon. And you will walk together in true prosperity. true prosperity. A congregation built on the foundation of Jesus Christ in which every member is
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providing what each joint and ligament contributes to the building up of the body in love.
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We move forward, but we move forward. This is this is somewhat ironic and and not obvious. We move forward planted we move forward planted in God's word and God's community.
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The idea in our society that you move because of your job has torn apart the church of Jesus Christ. It has destabilized the work of God in this
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country and it has ruined the lives of I think it's time by God's grace that that be turned around in the church that
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people begin to see that they have the generations and the generations and the generations through which to teach as you rise up as you lie down, as you walk in the way,
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teach the word of God. that that is going to provide, I believe, an environment where the young will be able to make decisions in life that are wise
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and also recognize when they've made decisions that weren't wise, learn from them and glorify God in the whole
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process. I do believe that we should plan. I think we should all have an idea first of what God desires for us to do and then a plan on how to do it. I think we
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should leave that plan and hold it with kind of loose grip as Paul did so that when the Lord directs in a different way by his providential circumstances, we
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are able to adjust and continue on the path with that same singular vision of the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the father.
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That is our goal. As we do that, I think it is assured that we will be able to say as we're going, I go with the fullness of the blessing of Christ. Let
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us pray. Father, we do ask that you would guide us and guide our steps. Knowing that we will make mistakes, we
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pray that you would keep our minds open and seeking wisdom, seeking wisdom from others and seeking wisdom from your word by your Holy Spirit. That we would recognize the mistakes
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we've made and learn from them so that we might be able to help others not to make those mistakes. and in the paths that you lead us, even if it is only for a time, that we might
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learn how to use what we have gained in that experience for the benefit and edification of the church for your glory. We pray, Father, that you would indeed
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guide us as a light in the darkness, a path to our feet, that we would stay on that road to the celestial city, and that you would help us fix our eyes upon
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Jesus. For it is in his name we pray. Amen. Well, this